GoDaddy Faces boycott over SOPA support

Most Internet companies oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act, but the domain …

Major Internet companies have formed a united front in their opposition to the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. Well, almost. One exception has been the domain registrar GoDaddy. In a op-ed published in Politico shortly after SOPA was introduced in the House, GoDaddy applauded the bill and called opponents "myopic."

Now furious Internet users at reddit (owned by Advance Publications, which also owns Condé Nast) have organized a boycott of the registrar.

"I just finished writing GoDaddy a letter stating why I'm moving my small businesses 51 domains away from them, as well as my personal domains," wrote redditor selfprodigy on Thursday morning. He proposed that December 29 be declared "move your domain day," with GoDaddy customers switching to competing registrars. The post has accumulated more than 1,500 comments, most of them supporting the idea.

We contacted GoDaddy for comment. A spokesman declined to comment on the boycott specifically, but reiterated the firm's support for the legislation. She sent us a link to the company's written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee last month.

"This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs, and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line," the statement reads. "US businesses are getting robbed and US consumers are getting duped."

The company dismissed free speech concerns. "Not only is there no First Amendment concern, but the notion that we should turn a blind eye to criminal conduct because other countries may take oppressive steps in response is an affront to the very fabric of this nation."

GoDaddy appears to be doubling down on this position. Today, it reposted its Politico op-ed to the GoDaddy support forums. Comments were disabled.

The House Judiciary Committee has released a list of 142 companies that support SOPA. GoDaddy appears to be the only domain registrar, or Internet company for that matter, on the list. Indeed, even traditionally strong copyright supporters like the Business Software Alliance have been having second thoughts about the legislation.

Update (6:18 PM): GoDaddy seems unimpressed by the boycott so far. They made the following statement to Ars Technica: "Go Daddy has received some emails that appear to stem from the boycott prompt, but we have not seen any impact to our business. We understand there are many differing opinions on the SOPA regulations."

Update (December 23): Barely 24 hours after the boycott started, GoDaddy now says it has dropped its support for SOPA.

I've been meaning to move my domains to Name.com for a while now. Seems like the 29th is a perfect day to do it too :)

I'm thinking this is GoDaddy sucking up to the big wigs that will be holding the trigger to the huge caliber weapons that are SOPA and PROTECT IP. "Please don't hurt us Big Content! We'll bring Danica over for a party..."

GoDaddy has one thing going for them: cost. That's it. Other registrars are better at everything else.

NS for example is run by a bunch of greedy used car salesman. Mere renewal of a domain at NS is an exercise in how many times you need to click "no thanks not interested in giving you more of my money". But no one ever got their domain name hijacked off NS or got billed incorrectly by NS or what-have-you.

No one serious about maintaining an online presence would ever use GoDaddy (large corporations for example). Only nerds and small businesses and organizations use them.

My point is, GoDaddy's support of SOPA flies against their core user base.

I moved my domains away years ago because I didn't like the way they do business. One of my coworkers lost his personal domain and to this day he blames GoDaddy.

GoDaddy is very inexpensive, and you get the service you pay for. There are plenty of top notch domain registrars out there - I can recommend EasyDNS, Gandi and PairNIC as reputable companies that are easy to work with.

GoDaddy, the Walmart of the domain world. When they first opened and showed their first commercials I thought they might be brilliant. Using hot chicks in commercials that makes them look like a porn provider, because that's what the internet is for.? It was funny and memorable to their target customers. Then I began to realize that no, this is actually a trashy business after talking to a few folks, as you say, you get what you pay for. Then the CEO issues with elephant hunts, and now this.

As has been said, they have pissed off their core, so good luck with that. The sad thing is that real people will lose their jobs because their leadership was clue free.

As was mentioned in the reddit thread, make sure you aren't just moving to another GoDaddy company if you choose to boycott their services. They own several other registrars and don't explicitly state this anywhere on the sites.

I've always been pretty happy with Network Solutions. Even though GoDaddy was a bit cheaper it just seemed a bit skeezy to me ever since first seeing their ads in 'boot' magazine (now known as Maximum PC).

I've never registered any domains with them (did that thru R4L), but I have used them for hosting. The ability to do a quick preconfigured WordPress, Joomla, etc. install does have some real appeal for those of us that just want to get on with our lives rather than mucking about with configs.

HOWEVER, that being said, it looks like it might be time for me to check out some alternatives for hosting. Suggestions, Arsians?

I've always been pretty happy with Network Solutions. Even though GoDaddy was a bit cheaper it just seemed a bit skeezy to me ever since first seeing their ads in 'boot' magazine (now known as Maximum PC).

GoDaddy kept trying to automatically renew my DNS registrationby charging my credit card. Luckily card had expired. Fuck them. I second the recommendation for Network Solutions who will send you reminder emails with increasing frequency which is how it should be.

I've always been pretty happy with Network Solutions. Even though GoDaddy was a bit cheaper it just seemed a bit skeezy to me ever since first seeing their ads in 'boot' magazine (now known as Maximum PC).

That PDF is like a list of companies (some of them effectively listed more than once, e.g. Disney and ABC; they're everywhere) that it would be very difficult to boycott. e.g. The Fraternal order of Police . . . Yeah I think I would if I could. GoDaddy is just one of the only ones I feel I could strike back at. I was already not buying anything from them anyway, though.

If you've ever wondered why we haven't received broadcasts from other sentient beings in the universe, because no doubt as they progressed, they also acquired the genetic malfunction that taints our species. Lawyer.

Their planets are silent as they take copyright and unlicensed broadcast VERY seriously. I imagine the moment we do pick up their early radio waves, a fleet of dreadnoughts will hyperspace into our orbit and fire a few mass sink torpedoes into our Earths core turning it into a blackhole for watching their unlicensed "works"

i use dotster. could never get passed the name 'godaddy'. what adult male wants to say 'godaddy' in any aspect of their life?

boycotts over tits do not work, why? we all like tits. using sex to sell things is pretty status quo. i suspect their customer base likes tits a lot. Tits are not against the core values of most technologically inclined people I've ever met.

boycotts over serious nerd principles, or over real civil liberties issues? Completely different. Who is going to continue to pay someone who states they support legislation that goes against their core values?

Seriously tho, who can say go daddy without just feeling completely retarded to begin with?

Well, I've been looking for a domain name service for a while, and this makes my choice a bit easier. Go Daddy had nice prices, but this eliminates them, as it did for many of the other posters. I'll have to check out name.com though, it seems. Thanks for the heads up!

Timothy B. Lee / Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times.